November 29, 2016

State certifies election results, orders three recounts in legislative races

Hillary Clinton officially won New Mexico and its five electoral votes, after certification of results by the State Canvassing Board Tuesday.

The board also certified the need for three recounts in legislative races, one of which heads into the recount with just a nine vote advantage.

In the official results, 804,043 voters cast ballots, or 62.4 percent of the 1,289,414 voters who were registered in time to vote in the general election.

Hillary Clinton received 48.26 percent of the votes cast in the presidential race, while Republican Donald Trump received 40.04 percent. Trump, however, received the most votes in enough states to win the presidency.

Gary Johnson, a former New Mexico governor who ran as a Libertarian Party nominee, received 9.34 percent of the votes statewide, the highest percentage by a member of neither major party since Ross Perot received 16.12 percent in 1992. Jill Stein received the support of 1.24 percent of voters, and no other candidate received more than 1 percent.

In the race for Secretary of State, Democrat Maggie Toulouse Oliver defeated Republican Nora Espinoza 56.41 percent to 43.59 percent. The Secretary of State position is normally held in non-presidential years. The resignation of Dianna Duran hours before pleading guilty to multiple crimes, including felonies, related to campaign finance prompted the race to fill the final two years of the term.

In another rarity, Republican Judith Nakamura won the race for state Supreme Court. She defeated Democrat Michael Vigil 52 percent to 48 percent. The female majority state Supreme Court is now made up of four Democrats and one Republican.

Recounts

The state canvassing board ordered automatic recounts in three legislative races. Automatic recounts occur when the results of the race are within 1 percent between the top two candidates.

The third and closest race headed to a recount is between Republican incumbent David Adkins and Democratic challenger Ronnie Martinez. Adkins leads Martinez 6,976 to 6,967 in House District 29, or 50.03 percent to 49.97 percent.

Winter noted that hacking would not be possible because New Mexico’s ballots are backed up by paper ballots.

Recently, Trump asserted without evidence and falsely that three million ballots across the country were cast illegally. This echoes a claim made by conspiracy theory websites like InfoWars, which also falsely believes the terror attacks on 9/11 were an inside job and that the government created the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting that resulted in the deaths of 20 children and six adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Politifact called Trump’s election claim “ridiculously illogical” and said it was “pants on fire” false.

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New Mexico’s Republican gubernatorial candidate wants the U.S. Department of Justice to hold 2016 presidential candidate and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accountable for an email scandal that dates back to nearly a decade ago. Without offering many details, U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, who is giving up his congressional seat to run for New Mexico governor, said in a radio interview last week he does not think the DOJ—specifically U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions—is doing enough to take Clinton to task for the way she reportedly handled classified email messages while Secretary of State.

MCALLEN — Every afternoon, dozens of immigrant families released by the U.S. government walk three blocks from the Greyhound bus station in this South Texas border city to a migrant shelter run by Catholic Charities. Along with the clothes slung over their shoulders, the migrants sometimes carry government-issued containers — dark-blue receptacles resembling lunch boxes, with plastic handles that shine in the mid-afternoon sun.

New Mexico was told there are no signs that Russians targeted the state’s elections systems ahead of the 2016 elections. Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver made the announcement Friday afternoon, after news broke that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security contacted the elections officials in each state and informed 21 there were attempts to breach their systems. The Associated Press reported DHS said there was no evidence any votes were affected.

The field is set for the 2018 state House primaries, with eight incumbents not filing for reelection and several others facing potentially competitive challenges either in the primary or the general election. Still, there are 26 candidates, all incumbents, who face no opposition in either the primary or general election.

Three Democratic candidates in New Mexico received endorsements from a high-profile source: former President Barack Obama. Obama announced his nationwide endorsements on Twitter Wednesday, with less than 100 days until election day.

Recently completed recounts in three state legislative races didn’t result in any changes to the election night winners. In the closest race, Republican state Rep. David Adkins kept his Bernalillo County seat by defeating Democrat Ronnie Martinez by just nine votes.

MCALLEN — Every afternoon, dozens of immigrant families released by the U.S. government walk three blocks from the Greyhound bus station in this South Texas border city to a migrant shelter run by Catholic Charities.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Groups advocating for the rights of children and families detained at the southern border are using the Freedom of Information Act to find out exactly where the Trump administration plans to build migrant detention centers on two military bases in the Southwest.

Matthew Reichbach is the editor of the NM Political Report. The former founder and editor of the NM Telegram, Matthew was also a co-founder of New Mexico FBIHOP with his brother and one of the original hires at the groundbreaking website the New Mexico Independent. Matthew has covered events such as the Democratic National Convention and Netroots Nation and formerly published, “The Morning Word,” a daily political news summary for NM Telegram and the Santa Fe Reporter.
Matthew has appeared as a panelist for the Society of Professional Journalists’ New Mexico Chapter’s panel on covering New Mexico politics and the legislature.
A native New Mexican from Rio Rancho, Matthew’s family has been in New Mexico since the 1600s.